Oh my I have Habits

Habits we all have them. So it would be important to control them. This could improve our quality of life.

Habits have three parts. There is a trigger for the habit to start, next the habit itself and then the reward. Changing a habit will take diagnosing the trigger/cue and reward, and then one can work on changing the behavior.

I wrote about habits we have in the words we use in my book. I mentioned one that most of us use them on a regular basis. That would be “Talk to you later.” Sometimes the words just automatically come out of our mouths without thinking. When finishing a phone call we tend to say “talk to you later”. Do you really want to talk with this person later or would sooner be better? So say, “Talk to you soon.”  This could be an affirmation or habit you might prefer to set in motion. Plus, I think it sounds friendly like you look forward to talking with them again.

Definition of Habit
Definition of Habit

Another example of words as habits that we use repeatedly without thinking, like, “I can’t.” I find the word “can’t” to be disempowering. I prefer “I choose not to” or “I won’t”. Do you see the difference? You could even say “I choose to do something else.”

If you want to create a new habit or let go of one Dr. Maltz published the quote in 1960 to say it takes a minimum of 21 consecutive days of doing something for it to form a new habit. In 2009 Phillippa Lally did research showing it took 18 to 254 days for people to form a new habit. On average is takes more than 2 months around 66 days for a new behavior to become a habit. Taking more than 21 days would make it a process that one needs to embrace. Be gentle with yourself through this process. It is going to take time. And that it doesn’t matter is you missed or forgot now and then because it turns out building better habits is not about doing the process perfectly. I like the sound of that.

Do you have a habit you would like to start creating? Like drinking more water every day. Take a little time for yourself to see what comes to mind in an area you would like to change. You could meditate on it. Take a walk in nature and discover what is let’s say just not working for you now. After that what you do is up to you.

 

Here’s hoping you find some habits you have that you enjoy and another that you want to start creating.

 

Quotes on habits:

 

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

 

“Don’t let your sins turn into bad habits.” – Saint Teresa

 

“Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them.” – Agatha Christie

 

“A change in bad habits leads to a change in life.” – Jenny Craig

 

“Achievement is a habit-cultivate it.” – Henry Mills

 

“Habits are safer than rules; you don’t have to watch them. And you don’t have to keep them either. They keep you.” – Frank Crane

 

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